Drowning Sorrows
by Skylark Starflower
Summary: When you're being hunted by the law, there's only a certain amount of time before one's patience snaps. The booze doesn't seem to help, either.


Authors Note/Disclaimer: I don't own WA 3, it belongs to Media Vision/Sony.

Well, this is something I found in my notebook that I'd earlier trashed. Rereading it, I liked the premise, so I took it and rewrote it into this. Hope you like it. And on another note, I treated inns in this fic as they appeared in the game, meaning yes, they are all sharing a room.

"**Drowning Sorrows"****  
By Skylark Starflower ****  
Originally started June 5, 2003****  
Revamp started April 19, 2004****  
Finished June 23, 2005**

"Clive," grumbled Gallows, "stop pacing and go to sleep. You're keeping the rest of us up."

Virginia pushed herself up on her elbows and watched the eldest member of the team. Clive had sat down on the end of his bed, but still he could not sleep.

"Are you all right, Clive?" she asked, her tone worried.

He looked up at her. She could see that he was a mess. His hair was disheveled – he hadn't been able to properly clean it in days – and he looked tired and worn. His face looked much older than his thirty years. He just stared at her for a few moments before replying.

"I am going downstairs for a few moments. I should not be too long."

The leader watched him go, an odd feeling in her stomach telling her that something wasn't quite right. She ignored it, lying back down. Clive was a big boy; he'd be all right on his own. Besides, she told herself, it was still rather early in the evening.

Her worries satisfactorily dispelled, she went to sleep.

X X X

Jet lay awake, staring at the ceiling. It had been over two hours now since Clive had left, and he had yet to return. Contrary to what he kept telling the others, he couldn't help worrying that something may have happened to the green haired sniper.

Damn, he thought, I've been with these idiots for too long. …I should wake the others, just in case something has come up.

Jet dropped to the floor and headed over to wake Virginia when the girl spoke.

"I know. He's been gone too long." She sat up, swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood.

"How long have you been awake?" Jet asked as he turned to wake Gallows.

"The last half hour," she admitted as Jet roughly shook the big Baskar awake. Gallows snorted and rolled over to face the silver haired boy.

"What's up?" he asked as he too stood. He followed suit with the others as they holstered their ARMs, still not entirely sure why.

"Clive went downstairs for a few moments two hours ago and has yet to return," Virginia answered. "We're going down to check it out."

Gallows nodded and the trio headed downstairs to see what was what. It had been several months since the Ark had put the bounty on their heads. Many bounty hunters had come looking to cash in on it since, and they had no way of knowing what to expect, much less what had happened to Clive, until they found him.

At first, Virginia could see nothing wrong. Clive was seated at one of the tables in the saloon, nursing a half empty glass of some kind of alcohol. He looked half asleep, and at first Virginia thought the slight swaying in his movements was due to his tiredness. It was when she and the others joined him at the table that she found he was actually quite drunk. She placed a hand on his shoulder, startling him somewhat.

"Are you okay, Clive? What's the matter?"

He stared blearily into his drink. "I wanna go home…" he muttered, sounding very unlike he did normally.

"Hey," broke in Gallows, "we all wanna go home, but we can't until this thing with the Ark blows over. It's not fair to our families to put them in danger like that."

"I miss Catherine and Kaitlyn," Clive continued as though Gallows hadn't spoken, "it's been too long…"

"…How much have you had to drink?" asked Jet, slightly unnerved by his teammate's odd behavior. The sniper started counting on his fingers, and wasn't doing a very good job of it. Shaking his head, Jet stopped Claudia as she brought another drink to the table to replace the now empty glass Clive was holding. "I think you've had enough."

Clive shoved Jet aside roughly and plucked the full glass from Claudia's tray, shaking his head. "I can handle more than that…"

Virginia placed a hand on both Jet's and Clive's shoulders as Jet scowled at the green haired sniper and Clive continued to ignore him and nip at his new glass of alcohol. "Clive," she said, "I think Jet's right. Now put that glass down and come upstairs with us, okay?"

"No. Lemme 'lone…"

"Clive? This is … you're acting very strange."

"So what?"

"So, we're your friends! Let us help you!"

"How? How could you possibly help me?" Virginia was startled by his sudden outburst, and was surprised to see tears in his eyes as he fixed his gaze on her.

Frustrated and not a little disgusted with himself, Clive angrily threw the glass he held against the far wall, where it shattered, splashing drink against the already stained wood. None of the few other patrons paid him any attention. They had all seen stuff like this before.

The sound of the blow seemed to echo around the bar and both Virginia and Jet stared at Gallows in shock. The big Baskar was livid, and he stood over the fallen sniper as Clive rubbed tenderly at his sore jaw in surprise.

"Stop feeling so damn sorry for yourself!" It was rare to see Gallows so upset. "We're all in the same boat here! Just 'cause none of us are married or got kids means nothing! You think I don't want to see Shane again? We've got families, too, you know! So get a hold of yourself and _deal_! And you resorting to…to this…" Gallows trailed off and just shook his head. "You should know better." With that, he turned and left, heading back to the room they had rented.

Clive didn't try to stand from where he had fallen, his head more than a little muddled by the alcohol and the blow. He stared after Gallows wearing a look of shocked horror, as he finally understood what the big man was saying.

Virginia watched as the green haired sniper curled up into himself and started to sob. He looked so small to her like this, so childlike, she couldn't help but feel sorry for him, even if she did agree with Gallows. Kneeling down beside him, she placed a hand on his shoulder and felt him flinch at her touch.

"Clive? It's okay…" He said nothing as she helped him up from the floor and began to lead him back to their room. "We'll discuss this more in the morning, okay? For now, let's just go to bed."

Jet was the last to leave the saloon. He hadn't expected something like that from Clive. From Gallows, maybe, but not Clive. He idly wondered if the others were realizing just how the stress of the situation had begun to affect all of them. He was almost certain that this had just been a warning sign.

Shrugging to himself, he followed after the others. He didn't envy Clive the hangover he would have in the morning.

As he headed up the stairs, he added Gallows to his mental list of people not to piss off.

**The End**


End file.
